Harvard students longing for a real fire and a chance to rescue people finally had their chance Saturday morning when a blaze gutted the third floor of a rooming house at 451/2 Mt. Auburn Street and threatened for a time to destroy the building.

John E. Giles '37, one of the active participants, said that he and Robert F. Meyers '39 were walking down Bow Street from the H.A.A. shortly after 10 o'clock when they saw smoke pouring out of a window of the house.

Overhearing a policeman tell a woman spectator that he did not know where the fire box was. Giles rushed off in search while Meyers plungers into the building.

Meanwhile a crowd was gathering.

Giles found a box on Massachusetts Avenue by Beck Hall and turned in an alarm. Meyers went to the second floor from which two children and two adults were escorted to safety.

From the third story two more children were passed down the stairway with the help of a chain of rescued including two Midshipmen, while an additional pair of adults also made their escape.

By this time the fire department had arrived and put out the blaze. A considerable crowd had also rallied around. A number of students helped as much.